Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #118 (11/22) with Evan Frank, who’s the Co-founder of Fora. Fora is reinventing the travel agency, starting by building tools to empower travel agents. Prior to Fora, Evan was the CEO of Onefinestay, which was notably acquired for $200M+. Evan has some really incredible experience with marketplaces in both the travel & accommodation markets.
‍
0:06 Intro
‍1:09 Evan's background
‍7:12 The journey scaling Onefinestay to acquisition
‍10:41 The challenges with Onefinestay as a managed marketplace
‍13:22 The Onefinestay team & marketplace org structure
‍15:57 How Onefinestay selected markets & the new market launch playbook
‍17:30 The biggest learnings from Onefinestay
‍19:57 The first steps for starting Fora
‍23:35 An overview of Fora as a travel marketplace
‍27:32 How Fora is acquiring & onboarding travel advisors
‍31:23 How Fora is using travel advisors to acquire demand
‍36:15 The fundraising journey for Fora
‍43:23 Group Q&A on the potential tipping point to start acquiring demand directly
‍47:15 Group Q&A on how Fora ensures quality & ratings with travel advisors
‍50:33 Group Q&A on the future of Fora & building a brand as a travel marketplace

Evan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanbfrank
Fora: https://www.foratravel.com
‍
‍Connect with Evan in the Everything Marketplaces community.